RIM's shrinking value

The much maligned BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has some good news to hang its hat on. Itoutsold the iPad 2 at some FutureShop and BestBuylocationslast week.

Although its a small sample size and only represents one chain, its a welcome bit of good news for the Research in Motion.

Unfortunately for RIM though, thats seemingly where the good news ends.

The company has seen its market capitalizationessentially how much thecompany is worthfall about 90 per cent since the end of 2008.

Back then, RIM was worth about $77 billiondollars. Today, its worth about $7 billion.

By comparison, RIMs main competitor has seen its market capitalization explode over this period.

At the end of 2008, Apple was worth about $175 billion. Its nearly tripled since then to over $500 billion, making it the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.

Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the number of shares in a company by the price of each share.

RIM shares traded around $150 in the summer of 2008, but openedMonday morning at just $13.31.

It might not get any better for RIM in the near future either. Analyst Peter Misek of Jefferies & Co. recently downgraded his outlook for RIM shares, cutting his 12-month price target to $12 per share.

Apple is also expected to announce the iPad 3 at an event on Wednesday.